NEWS & UPDATES
MAY 2007: Kate and Mel are interviewed about the Cycling Silk expedition on Vagabonding.net.
APRIL 2007: A feature article that Kate wrote about the Cycling Silk expedition has just been published in Outpost, Canada's top adventure travel magazine. Email if you want to read it.
JANUARY 2007: The movie trailer for the Cycling Silk documentary is available online. Check out this three minute movie preview of our (mis)adventures along the Silk Road.
In the late spring and summer of 2006, four young wannabe explorers went on a long-distance cycling expedition retracing the travels of Marco Polo along ancient Silk Road trading routes in Xinjiang and Tibet in China. For months on end, we were cycling nomads traveling in Marco Polo's shadow. We also raised money for communities along the modern silk road.
Although we swapped camels for bikes on this trip, the objectives of our journey - to explore unfamiliar landscapes, encounter new cultures, and experience different modes of life - and the challenges faced along route were similar to those of Polo's journey. From the Taklamakan desert to Kashgar, Mount Muztaghata to the high Tibetan plateau, we followed a similar route in space but a wildly different route in time. We discovered that the truth and reality of a place is best revealed on dusty, windig trails, in remote communities, inside yurts shadowed by unnamed mountains. Those were worlds worth exploring, and worlds best explored from the vantage of a bicycle.
This website chronicles our adventure. You can read our journal entries, and check out some photos. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch. Happy trails, and ride on.
